'It's a pride thing for me,' former Niles City Council member says.

'It's a pride thing for me,' former Niles City Council member says.

NILES -- In 2000, when Niles residents were first made aware that a power plant might be coming their way, Scott Clark was in his third year on the Niles City Council. He looked into the issue, and with Niles City Administrator Terry Eull and fellow council members Dan Everett and Bill Weimer he traveled to Midland, Mich., to tour Midland Cogeneration Venture's power plant. Clark liked what he saw, and he wasn't afraid to express his opinion. "If you could show me where it would cause any problems, I'd have to see it,'' he said at the time. Of course, not everyone agreed with him. He paid the price as he saw a drop-off in business at Clark's Service, an automotive garage he had operated in Niles for close to 20 years. "Yes, I lost some business over it,'' he recalled Thursday. "It was maybe $30,000 a year for a couple of years. But I felt that (the power plant) was right.'' He felt it was right, too, on Monday night when he gave up his 4th Ward seat so he could continue to service city police cars. Had he not resigned, Clark, faced with state law designed to level the playing field in potential conflict-of-interest situations, would have needed a two-thirds majority -- six votes -- to retain the work. With his resignation, he needed only a simple majority, and he received it, 4-3. Asked why he was willing to give up his seat for a contract that, according to Mayor Mike McCauslin, will amount to a relatively small sum of roughly $35,000 a year over three years, Clark had a ready answer. "It's a pride thing for me. I've worked on these cars ever since grade school,'' he said. He said he worked on his first city police car in 1977, when he replaced an engine in a two-year-old vehicle in his father, Paul Clark's, garage. By then, Scott Clark was already more than a little familiar with city police officers. "I've been hanging around the Police Department my whole life,'' he said. "My dad started the police auxiliary with Roy Peters. I knew everybody, all the inner workings.'' But by Monday night it had become clear Clark couldn't have it both ways. He had to give up either the police vehicle maintenance contract or his position on the City Council, and he chose to part with the latter. McCauslin said Clark's leadership on the City Council will be greatly missed. The mayor recalled that Clark, when he served on the Niles Housing Commission, was "very instrumental'' in resolving problems that cropped up a little more than a year ago at the Senior Citizen High Rise on Cass Street. "There were a number of issues down there. ... They were all over the map, from issues with residents to financial concerns,'' he said. He said the problems were resolved only after Clark convinced John Leich, a former Niles police officer, to take over as director. It's true also that Clark took the bull by the horns when the City Council faced the issue of where to erect the locally funded Veterans Memorial. The Niles Downtown Development Authority made no secret that it opposed the memorial committee's proposal to locate the project in Riverfront Park. Although the issue wasn't on the agenda, Clark took it upon himself to make the motion to locate the memorial in the park. The motion passed, with McCauslin agreeing the site offered serenity and beauty not available anywhere else. But Clark has his detractors, among them Niles City Councilman Dan Vanden Heede. Although he had believed for years that Clark's police car maintenance contract constituted a conflict of interest, it was only after Greg Dawson, then an employee of the Niles Utilities Department, raised the issue that Vanden Heede was successful in having the contract rebid. In a council memo issued four months ago, Vanden Heede accused Clark of using "bullying'' tactics for personal gain. While he hasn't backtracked, he said this week he also realizes Clark has accomplished much good for the community. He said his relationship with Clark "probably ... went off track'' during the power-plant debate. Yet Vanden Heede, the lone council member to vote against selling a 100-acre site for the yet-to-be-developed project, said he always appreciated Clark's candid comments. What he didn't appreciate, he said, was when Clark allegedly "threw his weight around ... with city employees.'' Clark denied the charge. "I don't bully people. I just like to take chances,'' he said. McCauslin described Clark in different terms. "He's unbridled and passionate about what he believes,'' he said. Apparently, that's why he's no longer a member of the City Council.